New Beat for Sale – The 5th

Today’s post is going to be a little short. With my music posts, I prefer to let the music speak for itself (as I’ve already spent untold hours on the beat).

One of my loop projects has finally grown up to be a full-fledged beat. I named this one “The 5^th“ because it was the 5^th file out of the potential beats that I’m working on right now. They usually don’t get names until they are finished. Check out the latest addition to the MrDraMatic “DraMatic Beats” catalog here.

Non-exclusive license: 49.99 | Exclusive license: 199.99

Help! MrDraMatic is in the Top 10!

I woke up this morning thinking “what will I post for the second day of this 90/90 deal that I’ve committed to?” The answer came to me when I checked my email and saw a message from ReverbNation.com saying that I had just reached #10 on the Phoenix, AZ electronica charts. If you don’t know what ReverbNation.com is all about, I’ll be doing a site review about it later. Anywho, this news brought up a variety of emotions, the main one being fear. Why fear? I’m glad you asked.

Fear of Success

I have a very real fear of success. True story. I have a self-sabotaging fuse somewhere in my brain that blows whenever I get a little bit of success going. I could go into the whole background of my issues, but I won’t. I’ll just say that, in this situation it means: more success = more fans = more responsibilities.

I’m actually a pretty quiet person in life, until I get really comfortable with being around someone. Then I come out of my shell a bit. Having fans doesn’t allow for that type of luxury. Having fans means that I must nurture them by doing things like posting 90 blogs in 90 days, and what-not. For my fans, I must put my soul out there for all to see. If you haven’t tried it before, bearing your soul is a pretty scary and traumatic experience.

I love you all!

All of that being said, I am very grateful for each and every fan. There aren’t a lot of you right now, but you are growing in numbers. Right now, MrDraMatic is a one man show. There are a lot of things that I want to do for my fans, but there’s only so much that I can do. With your help, though, eventually MrDraMatic will be a global franchise spreading mind-controlling, head bobbing music to the masses. Till then, I’m going to keep making that slow stroll up to the #1 spot. I’m facing my fear head on and I know that my fans have my back.

Again, I love and appreciate each of you and hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the show. Till tomorrow, awesome fan bonus +500.

90 Blogs in 90 Days

So, I’ve finally made the commitment to jump head-on into this blogging thing. Now, I this is not a New Year’s resolution. I’ve told ya’ll how I feel about those. This is part of that focus thing. I actually got the idea from another blog that I was reading last night and I thought, “That’s a pretty sound idea.” So, I’m running with it.

I don’t like writing.

I’m pretty smart when it comes to most things. I was in MI when I served in the Army, so I know I’m smart because the Army told me so. I regularly got A’s on my math tests in high school without doing any homework. But, the reason that I almost didn’t graduate high school was because I avoided writing like the plaque. Since then, I’ve had plenty of arguments with myself (lost most of them) and came to the conclusion: If you’re so smart, then learn how to write better. I also came to the added conclusion: Grow up and get over it.

…but I have plenty to talk about.

Being smart means that there are tons of ideas (most useful, some less so) rolling around this extra-large noodle of mine. The challenge is keeping them all relevant to music as far as this blog goes. Thus the focus training. Now, I’m pretty well spoken and would love to do a YouTube style blog, but the finances don’t allow for that type of operation just yet. So, until that changes I’ll have to navigate through this gauntlet of missed place commas, grammar police, and my general fear of criticism.

So on with the show.

So, what do I talk about? What do you want to hear about? I’m sure these answers will become clearer as I go, but of course I have a general idea of the direction that I’m going to go. Along with the usual software, book, and website reviews, I plan to go more into the general thought process and life-style that it takes to be a producer. There are a lot of things that go into the thought process that people take for granted like: separating the music persona from the real you if you so choose or; do you market yourself as an artist/producer (promoting instrumental releases like RJD2 for example), or do you just want to sell beats, or both?

I think that’s enough for today. You get the idea. Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear from more of you soon.

Thanks for reading bonus +100

Site Review – IndabaMusic.com

IndabaMusic.com is the best place on the internet for producers, not only for showcasing their skills through remix contests, but for learning, improving, and networking with other producers and artists.

If you have heard of IndabaMusic.com, then you probably know of it from the many remix contest entries that are posted across social media. If you haven’t heard of Indaba, then now you know that it is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) sites for remix competitions. Remix competitions are great for producers who don’t have access to artists and vocals to improve their skills. Indaba is more than remixes, though. This site hosts licensing opportunities and some really unique contest to get artists and producers as much exposure to opportunities as they possibly can.

The community

What makes IndabaMusic.com truly great is the community of producers, artists, and real-deal music lovers. Before the internet, producers couldn’t really trade tips with each other without fear of giving away the trade secrets that gives them whatever advantage they had in their local music scene. With Indaba, you get to network with producers of all kinds of sounds from across the globe. The community is all about supporting newcomers looking to get in the game and vets looking for new techniques alike. Enter any competition and you will get immediate, FREE, critiques and tips from your peers. Other sites actually charge quite a bit for that alone!

A staff that understands us!

The message boards are always alive with posts about remix competitions and general music stuff. We musicians may be the most sensitive, ego-driven, innovative, and passionate people on the planet. The staff does an EXCELLENT job of keeping us in-line. The staff is always on the boards making sure that we don’t take advantage of the spam engine, keeping passions at a reasonable level, and actually listening to our critiques and suggestions for the site. There is no denying that they are true music fanatics and understand the kind of emotions that are attached to our personal labors of love.

Indaba Music + MrDraMatic

Personally, IndabaMusic.com has had a direct part in re-sparking that inner-drive within myself that is definitely necessary to succeed in music. Life and my music career weren’t getting along at one point in time. When I was ready to get back in the game, Indaba was there to keep me going. I’ve made some really cool friends from Greece, the UK, and more. I thought that my skills were the best on the planet (a common delusion of most artists) until I got on Indaba and found out how far behind I was. The challenge of getting my skills up fast was more than enough to get me excited about music again.

Indaba isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the best

No site is perfect. IndabaMusic.com knows this and works hard at adding new features and removing features that don’t work. There are times that the site acts strange in certain browsers, which is annoying. Still, when it comes to their dedication to musicians, Indaba is my favorite site in the web. If you are serious about advancing you skills or if you just want to play around with some top industry vocals, then IndabaMusic.com is a most join. Join for free or grab your pro-membership. Just check it out and stop by my profile to say hi.

Till then, thanks for reading my first website review bonus +500

P.S. IndabaMusic is the place where these crazy bonus points came from. I’ll tell you that story later.

2014 – No Resolution, Just More Focus

I’m not big into New Year’s resolutions and all of that. I try to be better every day so New Years is no different. Actually, I do all of my soul searching, fault digging, and life reflecting around my birthday. It’s not really something that I mean to do, it’s just that age makes me reassess my life.

That being said, 2014 has started off with a bang for your neighborhood internet super-producer. My grind has been revitalized and I’ve planted a few new seeds. If you’ve been keeping up on Twitter or Facebook, then you already know a bit of what I’m talking about. For the newbies, I’m pretty excited about what’s to come for the next year of the horse. I’m not going to get into much detail with this post because I need things to post about later. But, I will have a lot of things to post about this year.

I will give you a hint to some of the things that I have planned. First and for most, I have a new website! I am doing a lot of reading right now, so be ready for some production oriented book reviews. I’m also planning on doing some site reviews for producers looking for the best places to practice, improve and market their skills. I’ve been seriously slacking on bonus points and I’m sure some of you are dying to beat your past scores.

Anywho, the grind is back in full swing again. I have a few simple business goals for my music and career. Life has forced me focus on making more money and honestly I kind of like it that way. Not having a lot of extra cash to buy doodads and what-nots, gives me a lot of extra time to dig into my business. It’s annoying, irritating, exciting, and fun at the same time.

To my current and future fans (including the four people who actually read my blog), thank you and I love you all. Get ready for a DraMatic year in 2014.

Thanks for being you bonus +5000

Music Promotion and Marketing – Make Money Selling Beats

Frank Muster | Kindle | Sept 6, 2012 | 25 pages | $2.99

Bang for buck

This book is short. There, I said it! Yes, it only has 25 pages, but the information held in those few 25 pages is well worth the few $2.99 that it costs to purchase this mini guide.

Short and LET’S GET TO WORK!

Musicians are notorious for our short attention spans. That’s how I know that this was written by a true musician. Although this book is short with a purpose. You can think of it as more of an outline than a how-to, but it does have some elements of how-to in it.

An outline was exactly what I was looking for. When I was shopping for this book I was thinking “I need a book that is going to guide me in the right direction.” That is exactly what it did without holding my hand.

I finished this book in the first day that I bought it, which isn’t a bad thing. Reading and doing are two different things. After my first read, I started back at the top and started doing. In about a week I had everything that I needed to start selling my beats with mad confidence. The gems where good enough to light a fire and my a$$ and get that groove moving (all puns intended). An unexpected side-effect that also made the book worth the price.

Oops…

There are a couple of issues with the book. The first one is actually pretty big. The beginning of the book is about acquiring free software to get started making beats. I think the author would have done better to omit that part all together, especially since the free software that he recommends is no longer available. Also, I don’t think that he is doing business anymore as the main website for the is no longer available.

Other than that, the book is great and definitely worth the buy. If you feel that you think that you are ready to start selling your beats but have little idea of where to start then check this one out. It will definitely set you on the path. Put it on your Kindle NOW!
!

Thanks for reading my first book review bonus +500,000

I Miss My Reason

I miss my Reason. Since everything was stolen from me I’ve had to start all over from scratch with building my studio (again). I’ve just purchased and started working with Sonar X2 Producer. Why Sonar? I’ve been using Sonar since before it was called Sonar and it was Cakewalk Pro Audio 4. The great thing about Cakewalk is that they always have great prices for their upgrades, keeping customers loyal. This upgrade was $50 compared to upgrading and getting Reason 7 for $150.

I still miss the easy to use Reason interface and my handy-dandy wobble bass. So, again, why Sonar? It can do everything. The problem is that you won’t be able to do everything today; more like next year. It’s complicated, very complicated. I’m familiar with the program and I still think it’s going to take me a few months to get the same quality tracks out of it that I used to get out of Reason (maybe years). I’m in the slow boring phase of reading through the help documents just to figure out what everything does and why. I do know that once I have a decent understanding of everything I’ll be able to crank out some crazy sounds. They’ll probably sound totally different, if not better than what I was doing in Reason due to all of Sonar’s capabilities. It’s just going to take forever.

The bright side is once I do get that Reason upgrade, and I will, I’ll be able to rewire them together for some Gurren Lagann style, manly combining (JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM). That’s an anime reference for you uninitiated. I’m seriously looking forward to that day, so I’ll keep trudging the slow and steady path of mastering Sonar X2 Producer. I apologize to all of my two fans for the delay in new material, but I can’t put out garbage. So, if you’ll be patient with me, I’ll be patient with Cakewalk. I’m sure it’ll be worth it. To be continued…

Reorganization

It’s time to reorganize. I’ve spent all day yesterday downloading Sonar X2 Producer and now it’s time to start getting it trained up for some serious production. I have a lot of music in me seeing that it’s been a few months since I’ve made my last track. I went through my Soundcloud profile and noticed that my last upload was about 10 months ago. The last track that I did was a remix of Linkin Park’s Lost in the Echo (MrDraMatic Remix).

I have a new remix project that I’m about to get crackin on, and it’s really been a long time coming. I don’t want to tell you exactly what it is but I will give you a hint, it was my first remix project posted on Soundcloud and it’s still getting regular plays with no promotion from me. Listen now!

While I’m working on this next remix project, which has nothing to do with any contests so you won’t have to worry about me begging for votes, I’ll be going through some of my sites and posting past works. There are a lot of them scattered around the internet with various play statistics associated with them. I was pretty surprised by the ones with the most plays.

Seeing that I lost my last computer with my tracks on them, I’ll have to download and come up with a system for tracking them better. I’ll keep you informed of the progress. Keep an eye out on Facebook to see which ones have the most plays so far.

DraMatic Chronicles

Why I’ve been gone

Your friendly internet producer, MrDraMatic has been MIA for quite a few months. If you have been paying attention you’ll notice that I’ve dropped off the radar entirely. Surprising enough, some of you have actually been paying attention. I’ve gotten a couple of Facebook posts asking where I’ve been and a few cryptic requests for new material. This just warms my heart. So, where have I been? Well, if you really want to know then I’ll tell you.

I’ve been living a nightmare with a horribly tweeking, monster of a roommate. This guy had my apartment so tweeked-out that I was staying at the bar all day just to avoid going home. Now, I knew that the guy did meth before moving in, but we made an agreement that he could live there as long as he kept his meth to himself in his own room (he didn’t owner this agreemet). I was in a rush to get a new roommate because the one that I had prior to him left on short notice due to family issues.

To make a long story short, here are a list of offences that my meth-head roommate was guilty of (other meth-heads please take note so as not to be choked-out by someone not as nice as me):

1. Inviting homeless strangers in to live on the couch (because they shared his meth habit)
   
2. Inviting homeless bed bugs to live in the couch and everywhere else for, I guess, the same reason as above
   
3. After I kick out both of the above, letting them back in the apartment when I wasn’t there
   
4. Convincing my friends that I had become a meth addict by smoking it in my room during an after-party while I was in the bathroom
   
5. Stealing all of my stuff while I was away on a “psychiatric” vacation
   
6. Calling the cops because his meth friend wouldn’t let him back in the apartment after he lost his own keys
   
7. …plus many more hits
   

Needless to say, I redeveloped a drinking habit that had been suspended for a while, ended up homeless for 3 days and landed in a halfway-house with nothing but the clothes on my back. I have a resentment.

Where am I now

Having been in a halfway-house before and becoming a manager of the same I house, this transition wasn’t to traumatic, just a bit awkward. I decided, once again, to go along with the brainwashing with the thought of de-brainwashing myself at a later date. This is how I managed to stay sober for two years the first time. With a few minor adjustments to my thought processes, I may stay sober for a while longer this go round.

Good things are starting to happen for me again. This is the first time that I’ve dealt with Valley Fever sober and I’m managing quite well. I got a good deal on a laptop to replace MrZircon’s old shell. MrZircon still lives in the new (-ish) laptop and he is adjusting very well also. We are currently in the process of downloading the new Cakewalk Sonar X2 Producer to get started on the next line of MrDraMatic tracks and remixes. Stay tuned.

I’m still hardcore gaming it with Magic the Gathering and I have plans to go pro. We’ll see how that goes. If any of you are reading this and want to get down on a couple of games with me, my name on Magic Online is DraMatic (go figure). I have a few real-world decks that I’ve been working on while waiting for MrZircon to get up to speed. I’ve also found a live human friend who plays Magic to share in my card addiction.

That’s all for now. Keep reading for more exciting updates in the life and times of MrDraMatic, starving producer. Later.

The DraMatic Studios blog is up with its first post. This is my introduction into my vision of DraMatic Studios as a company. Check it out and let me know what you think.

DraMatic Studios

Welcome

Welcome to DraMatic Studios. DraMatic Studios is a lab of creativity established and solely ran by myself, Omari Walker aka MrDraMatic. I am an independent musician, and DraMatic Studios was created as a vehicle to promote my music productions and services.

I call DraMatic Studios a “lab of creativity” because, being an independent musician means that not only am I responsible for creating great music, but I’m also responsible for creating all of the supporting artwork, documents, and etc. This scenario is true for many other independent artists with small budgets. So, what ends up happening is that the artist must split their time between creating music and running their small business, which is the business of promoting their music.

Enter Microsoft

Microsoft doesn’t make products for musicians, but they do make products for small business owners. Microsoft Office is a great tool for independent artists, but there aren’t…

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